'This Week' Transcript: Don't Ask, Don't Tell

SCIUTTO: When the ban was lifted in 2000 with virtually no
preparation, something remarkable happened: nothing, no resignations,
no impairment of fighting ability, and almost no incidents of harassment.

TATCHELL: Some homophobic politicians and service chiefs played up
and exaggerated their likely dire consequences of allowing gays to
serve, but that was because they were against homosexuality. But when
the ban was lifted, their fears did not materialize.

SCIUTTO (on-screen): Gay servicemembers were quickly given all of
the benefits available to other soldiers and sailors, including shared
quarters with their partners in barracks like this one. In fact, gay
campaigners say that the military quickly became one of the most
tolerant organizations in the country.

(voice-over): Today, in a sign of just how far things have come,
the military even recruits at gay pride parades.

(on-screen): So if nothing happened, why do you think it took the
British military so long then to do it?

WEST: We are a reflection of the society we live in, and we should
be, because we are protecting and defending it, but we're always
slightly behind it in getting there.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): For "This Week," Jim Sciutto, ABC News, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: So one of the things that he mentioned inter alia was
that against it was because people were against homosexuality. That's
your position regarding gays serving in the military, correct?

DONNELLY: Our position is that military readiness should come first.

AMANPOUR: Well, we've just been talking about military readiness.
So what is really the position?

MAGINNIS: Well, this particular piece that you just showed on
foreign militaries -- I work with foreign militaries every day, still
do, and have for many years.

You know, it's -- the U.S. military is about 18 times larger than
the Brits. You know, to compare them to -- you know, to us is like
comparing an M1A1 tank to a Roman chariot.

AMANPOUR: But the issues are the same. The issues are the same.

MAGINNIS: No, the issues are fundamentally about privacy, about
unit cohesion, about trust and confidence, about readiness, about, you
know, retention, you know, recruitment. You look at all those.

Unfortunately, Christiane, the -- the report that the Pentagon came
out with, based upon a flawed survey, doesn't support that if you look
at how they did the process. And, unfortunately, unless Congress does
the right thing for the nation, you know, we're going to depend upon
some pretty bad research that scientists are going to disagree with.

AMANPOUR: Is it about morality or is it about combat
effectiveness? One historian has said the idea of unit cohesion was the
only thing they could come up with, but it was based on very little.

SCHULTZ: Nothing will be good enough for the opponents who do not
want to repeal "don't ask/don't tell." It's not about the evidence;
it's about the ideology. They're saying, oh, you can't compare the U.S.
military to other militaries. We're bigger, we're in war, et cetera, et
cetera. But then they simultaneously want to say we have the most
professional forces in the world, which we do.

AMANPOUR: But how do you answer -- how do you answer concerns by
people who think that, if this is repealed, suddenly there will be an
onslaught of openly gay behavior, the showers, the bunks, all the things
that people who don't like this...